It’s hardly a surprise that Giacomo Puccini’s 1896 creation “La Bohème” consistently ranks among the most popular operas of all time. It offers a classic love story, picturesque Parisian settings and a dramatic death-by-consumption ending.

Even before it opens Saturday evening, Opera Colorado’s latest production of the work has proved to be such a hit with audiences that it has added a rare fifth performance, on Nov. 16.

The Denver Post posed three questions about the opera and this staging to the production’s director, Andrew Sinclair:

Q: To what to do you attribute the endless appeal of this opera?

A: Well, it’s probably some of the most romantic music ever written for the operatic repertoire. There’s no doubt that whether people are opera lovers or not or opera- goers or not, they will have heard some of this music. It’s also a very well-constructed piece. For those of us who know it and love it, it constantly amazes us how wonderfully Puccini put it together.

Q: Since this piece is done so frequently, do you feel compelled to find a way to reinvigorate it?

A: I directed it quite a lot in the ’80s and early ’90s and, for no particular reason, it just sort of went out of my repertoire. And it came back in January this year when I did it in Singapore, and it was really interesting for me to do it again after a long absence, because I thought slightly differently about how I approached some of the characters. There are some things in this production that I still did basically the same in some of the others, but there is an awful lot of new stuff too.

Q: Can you talk about this production? What is your take on the opera?

A: What we have to try and portray in “Bohème” is not just a romantic opera. We have to try and portray life as it was then. Mimì is really the only one of the major characters who depends on what she does in order to stay alive. The four boys are having a great time pursuing their artistic ideals. They’ve got very nice clothes, but they’re living in an atticR because it’s kind of fun.

As news of the deadly mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, unfolded last week, Pia Guerra, a 46-year-old Vancouver-based artist, felt helpless. She couldn’t bring herself to go to sleep, so she began to draw.

Police who find suspected drugs during a traffic stop or an arrest usually pause to perform a simple task: They place some of the material in a vial filled with liquid. If the liquid turns a certain color, it’s supposed to confirm the presence of cocaine, heroin or other narcotics.